Data rules the search industry. You simply cannot take decision based on the assumptions. You may have years of experience managing complex PPC campaigns but that does not necessarily mean does not make you an exception. All your decisions should be based on raw data, be it increasing budget, pausing key phrases, changing of text ads or increasing the number of display ads. But sorry to say, even when you are making decisions after analyzing tons of data chances could be there that you are making wrong decision. Yes, some metrics though appear correct may mislead you and this could have disastrous impacts on the performance of the ongoing PPC campaigns. I hope you do not wish to see this happening with your campaign. So, to make your task easier, here I am going to give a round of some common factors that can mislead you:

Average CPC: This is the most crucial yet the most misleading metric that you need to remain aware of. For say, you are targeting the following keyword – ‘Office Chair’ and when you are analyzing the data, you found that the keyword has received 10 clicks and the total cost is $500. So that means, average CPC is $50. But dig down a little and you will come to realize the fact that 5 clicks have cost you just $10 in the early morning and 70% of those clicks have eventually converted and rest of the 5 clicks resulted nothing but have cost you $450. So you can understand, if you were to take decision only from the Average CPC, you were going to make a horrible decision.

Average Position: This is another metric that can make you take wrong decision as well. This metric is heavily dependent on how your competitors are bidding on those keywords. So, if you find that a keyword’s average position is 4, you should not think that it is performing beautifully. The ground situation could be something like this – your chosen keyword is appearing top when the chances of conversion are very low and it is dragged down to the bottom when the completion is high. So, think twice before you decide to take a decision based on average position.

Daily Budget: Okay, I know this is definitely not a metric but this is something that can take you off the guard. As you are aware of the fact that Bing and Google in particularly do not treat budget limit set by the advertiser that seriously and for that reason, on a good day, you may see that Google has spend 20% extra of whatever budget you have set earlier. Now, if your daily budget is $100 that would not be an issue but if your budget is $500, I hope you can sense what the big mess it can do with your campaign.

Conversion Rate: This is the most important metric that all marketers give utmost value when they are to make a very crucial decision about the future course of their PPC campaign. Just because a keyword is converting high does not necessarily mean that the keywords are contributing to the growth of the business. Seems like you are not getting my point. Ok here is the thing. Say, you are spending same amount of the following two keywords – Keyword A and Keyword B, now as things stand, if Keyword A gets converted, you will get $100 and keyword B gets converted, you will get $5. So, even if Keyword B performs better in the sheer number of conversion, it is the Keyword A which is going to add more value to your business.